Our first experience of Airbnb, and it is very good. We are staying with a wonderful couple, he is Cypriot but educated in the U.K. and she is British, who live in his old family house. If I say that it is in the same street as several embassies it gives you some idea of the size of it. It is called the Mansion House, which is not an exaggeration. Evidently his grandfather was entrepreneurial, made quite a lot of money and bought the house. There are eight guest rooms, ours is massive, with two balconies. The central foyer with a majestic staircase going up from it is very, very large. A centre piece is an also very large cage standing on an also large table, which is an optional refuge for a Macaw, who spends most of his time on top of the cage or on a perch. There are also three dogs and about twenty cats, most of which seem to be stray or rescued. It has the feel of a large hostel, with kitchen and a dining room open for everyone to use. It is a 'help yourself to anything you can see' way of living, put dirty stuff in the dish-washer and if it's full put it on.
An excellent example of this is how Anthony, the owner, opened up his private room yesterday, not that the door is ever shut anyway, to anyone who wanted to watch the Rugby internationals. So we arrived yesterday, after visiting a couple more Byzantine churches en route, at Platanistasa and Paliachori. They were in fact two of the finest we have seen and we were lucky on both occasions that we gained entry to them. The first church at Paliachori was locked when we arrived and a notice board informed us that it is only open Monday to Friday. We walked around the outside and were about to get back in the car when a man arrived with an impressively large key. He lived nearby and had seen us there, so he came to let us in. He was an excellent guide, with very good English who explained the finer details of the paintings to us. They were exceptionally good, and many quite unlike any we have seen previously. He told us that if we wanted to gain entry to the Monastery at Planatistasa we would have to ask for the key from a cafe in the village. We drove through the village, were unsuccessful in finding either the village centre or an open cafe, so we decided to give it a miss and continued our journey. We were way past the village when John spotted a sign to the Monastery on a side road. We wound our way up, not expecting it to be open, but thought we could look at the exterior. When we got there the door was wide open and a priest was sitting outside having a smoke. He opened up all the inner doors for us and gave us a strong torch so that we could see the internal paintings. Once again these paintings were very different. I want to do a bit of research about the original external ones if I can. They were very brutal, people being tortured and suffering, unlike some of the sanitised scenes we had seen in other churches. As we left the priest was having his packed lunch at one of the trestle tables outside. We told him how much we had enjoyed the visit, in our rudimentary Greek, he didn't have any English. He asked if we would like to have a coffee with him but unfortunately we needed to continue on our way.
Once checked into The Mansion House we walked into the old town of Lefkosia and had a meal at a Greek restaurant, which was very good. Then back to watch the Rugby and afterwards sit round the dining table with Anthony and Gilly and two other guests, drinking wine. It was 23.30 before we finally went to bed, quite different to our usual practice.
So today we began with a visit to The Cyprus Museum. There were some excellent exhibits, although the labelling wasn't always good. This trip has been surprising in that I have had to re-assess many of my pre-formed ideas. Another example of this is that I really enjoyed the Museum. I am usually quite cynical about Archaeology Musems. How many more pieces of Roman column or Hellenist pottery do I need to see? There were some beautiful pieces from the Bronze Ages, pottery, jewellery, tools and household items.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the Old Town, within the Venetian Walls. As it was Sunday many places were closed up. We went through the crossing to the North side and even less seemed open there, although there were lots of people everywhere, taking their Sunday strolls. We ate at a street side cafe at about 15.30, but the waiter was packing up around us as we were eating and we had hardly any choice of food as he was closing down. We were back to the B & B by 17.30 and bed earlier than last night.
An excellent example of this is how Anthony, the owner, opened up his private room yesterday, not that the door is ever shut anyway, to anyone who wanted to watch the Rugby internationals. So we arrived yesterday, after visiting a couple more Byzantine churches en route, at Platanistasa and Paliachori. They were in fact two of the finest we have seen and we were lucky on both occasions that we gained entry to them. The first church at Paliachori was locked when we arrived and a notice board informed us that it is only open Monday to Friday. We walked around the outside and were about to get back in the car when a man arrived with an impressively large key. He lived nearby and had seen us there, so he came to let us in. He was an excellent guide, with very good English who explained the finer details of the paintings to us. They were exceptionally good, and many quite unlike any we have seen previously. He told us that if we wanted to gain entry to the Monastery at Planatistasa we would have to ask for the key from a cafe in the village. We drove through the village, were unsuccessful in finding either the village centre or an open cafe, so we decided to give it a miss and continued our journey. We were way past the village when John spotted a sign to the Monastery on a side road. We wound our way up, not expecting it to be open, but thought we could look at the exterior. When we got there the door was wide open and a priest was sitting outside having a smoke. He opened up all the inner doors for us and gave us a strong torch so that we could see the internal paintings. Once again these paintings were very different. I want to do a bit of research about the original external ones if I can. They were very brutal, people being tortured and suffering, unlike some of the sanitised scenes we had seen in other churches. As we left the priest was having his packed lunch at one of the trestle tables outside. We told him how much we had enjoyed the visit, in our rudimentary Greek, he didn't have any English. He asked if we would like to have a coffee with him but unfortunately we needed to continue on our way.
Once checked into The Mansion House we walked into the old town of Lefkosia and had a meal at a Greek restaurant, which was very good. Then back to watch the Rugby and afterwards sit round the dining table with Anthony and Gilly and two other guests, drinking wine. It was 23.30 before we finally went to bed, quite different to our usual practice.
So today we began with a visit to The Cyprus Museum. There were some excellent exhibits, although the labelling wasn't always good. This trip has been surprising in that I have had to re-assess many of my pre-formed ideas. Another example of this is that I really enjoyed the Museum. I am usually quite cynical about Archaeology Musems. How many more pieces of Roman column or Hellenist pottery do I need to see? There were some beautiful pieces from the Bronze Ages, pottery, jewellery, tools and household items.
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the Old Town, within the Venetian Walls. As it was Sunday many places were closed up. We went through the crossing to the North side and even less seemed open there, although there were lots of people everywhere, taking their Sunday strolls. We ate at a street side cafe at about 15.30, but the waiter was packing up around us as we were eating and we had hardly any choice of food as he was closing down. We were back to the B & B by 17.30 and bed earlier than last night.
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